Ethernet is a local-area network architecture that was developed in the late 1970s for use in offices, e.g., to interconnect computers to each other and to a common printer. In recent years, companies have begun to develop ways to expand Ethernet principles to wide area networks, e.g., using Internet routers that are interconnected in various ways. The result has been the creation of switched metro Ethernet data networks.
Depending on the topology used, finding the most optimal topology for a switched metro Ethernet data network can be NP-complete and can only be solved via an exhaustive search. Performing such an exhaustive search is impractical since the time of the search increases exponentially as the size of the data network increases. As a result, methods for designing switched metro Ethernet data networks typically utilize a manual per-network approach to establish a data network design. This manual approach can be time consuming, expensive, and can result in inefficient network designs.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method for designing a customized switched metro Ethernet data network.